Author: Scarborough

After the Canadian government removed the legal barrier for minor immigrants under the age of 18 applying for citizenship on their own on June 19, 2017, the Government has announced a cut on the processing fee for minors. Now, a minor immigrant applying under subsection 5(1) of the Citizenship Act needs to pay only $100, a cut from the previous hefty fee of $530. The new move is expected to see more minor immigrants applying for citizenship without their parents.

The amendment ensures that there is no difference in the fee paid by citizenship grant applicants who are minors, regardless of whether they have a Canadian parent, are applying with a permanent resident parent or are applying on their own behalf.

Anyone who already paid the $530 fee for a minor applying under this subsection on or after June 19, 2017, will be reimbursed the difference of $430. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada will contact these applicants directly to outline the process for receiving a refund.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has reduced the spousal sponsorship applications, bringing it down to just 15,000 from a vast 75,000 persons as of December 31, 2017. The IRCC has shortened the processing time to 12 months, an improvement from the previous 26 months.
More than 80% of those who were in the global spousal sponsorship backlog on December 7, 2016, have now received final decisions for their applications.
The Canada Government also announced that further updates to the application kit and process have been made to improve the client experience and to ensure applications are processed as quickly as possible.
Under its multi-year immigration plan, the Government expects to grant permanent residence to more than 200,000 foreign spouses and common-law partners of Canadian citizens and permanent residents between 2018 and 2020.

Scarborough Immigration Services offers Canadian Permanent and Temporary immigration programs including Permanent Residency, Study Permits and Visit Visas. We work with authorised Canadian consultant. For more information, reach out to us at info@scarborough.co.in or +91 98955 98755.

The Provincial Nominee Program or PNP intends for Permanent Residency in Canada. The programs are under the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC, which is formerly the CIC). The Provincial Nominee program develops the economy of the Provinces which nominates applicants who are ready to settle there for positively contributing to the economy.

Under this category, the different Canadian provinces and territories selects the applicants who “Express an Interest” in relocating and settling in a particular Canadian province or territory.

Only few provinces participate in the programs. The provinces which currently offer Provincial Nominations are as below:

Alberta

British Columbia

Manitoba

New Brunswick

Newfoundland and Labrador

Northwest Territories

Nova Scotia

Ontario

Prince Edward Island

Saskatchewan

Yukon

Advantage of Provincial Nomination:

Provincial Nomination reduces the application processing time for a “Canadian Immigration Visa”, apart from the Federal Skilled Worker Category of application. The qualifying process of Permanent Residency is through natural selection from a pool of applicants with the highest scores. The scoring factors include education canadian experience etc.

Criteria of an Application:

The criteria for the selection process are:

Employment offer in the province

International or Canadian education

International or Canadian Work experience in critical industries

English and/or French language skills

Siblings (Close blood relations) in that province and

Adaptability to the Province.

***Provinces and territories may add any additional criteria for their own immigration streams at any point of time.

How it works

The Provincial Nominations primarily submitted to the appropriate provincial government office, before applying for a Canada Immigration Visa.

The nomination by the Province/Territory gives no guarantee on the approval of Canadian Immigration Visa. The approval of “Canada Immigration Visa” depends on the decision of IRCC on satisfying it with regard to the Provincial Applicant’s health, genuinity of documents etc.

The Departments of Justice and State announced that they have formalized a partnership aimed at protecting U.S. workers from discrimination and combatting fraud by employers that misuse visas. Employers that discriminate against qualified U.S. workers by favoring foreign visa workers will be held accountable. The Civil Rights Division and the Bureau of Consular Affairs will share information about employers that may be engaging in unlawful discrimination, committing fraud, or making other misrepresentations in their use of employment-based visas, such as H-1B, H-2A, and H-2B visas.

Effective November 11,2017, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) filing center address for a petition for a nonimmigrant worker (form I-129) will be determined based on the state where the company or organization’s primary office is located. Previously, petitioners filed form I-129 based on the beneficiary’s temporary employment or training location.If the petitioning employer is located in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas they can file the Form I-129 at the California Service Center.

Starting November 11,2017 USCIS may reject Form I-129s that are filed at the wrong service center. The USCIS will continue to accept I-129 petitions filed based on the previous instructions through November 10, 2017. More details are available on the USICS website:

With effect from Sept. 18, 2017, employers must use Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, with revision date 07/17/17 N, to verify the identity and work eligibility of every new employee hired after Nov. 6, 1986.

Failure to comply with new Form I-9 ( 07/17/17 N) will attract penalties under section 274A of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1324a, as enforced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Premium processing remains suspended for H-1B amendments and extensions of stay. However, Scarborough Law does anticipate premium processing to resume for extensions and amendments by October 3rd, 2017

H-1B Premium Processing is expected to return on October 3rd, 2017. After months of extraordinarily long delays on H-1B processing, USCIS is set to again accept premium processing H-1B petitions on October 3rd.

We will keep you posted as the formal announcement and details are released.